Canon expects surge in business
Canon, the Japanese manufacturer of electronic products, has designated Thailand as one of its four "victory countries" in Asia as it anticipates a business surge.
The other three countries are India, China and Vietnam. Under its "victory countries" campaign, Canon aims to see all its major products -such as digital cameras in the consumer market and photocopy machines in the corporate market - become market leaders by 2009, according to Warin Tantipongpanich, director and general manager of consumer imaging information of Canon Marketing (Thailand). Hisahiro Minokawa, president and CEO of Canon Marketing (Thailand), said the campaign would run for three years. He said the Asia market had shown very good growth in recent years. Canon's sales in Asia, excluding Japan, are expected to grow 30 per cent this year. Enormous economic growth in China and India are major drivers both to Canon and Asia. At the same time, Vietnam's opened economic policy has shown promising business potential while consumer and corporate markets in Thailand are still growing well. Marketing support for the four countries includes giving them product-launching priority and financial support to allow Canon's subsidiaries to set competitive prices. However, since the Thai market is more advanced than those of India, China and Vietnam, Canon will target high-tech products at middle-to-high-end people, while the other three countries will receive more products for the middle-to-low-end market. Canon's headquarters in Japan will increase its marketing budget, but Warin declined to elaborate on the figure for Thailand next year. For the consumer market, Canon will officially launch Selphy as its fourth sub-brand. Its other sub-brands include Ixus and Eos. Selphy features home printers costing about Bt4,000. For digital cameras, Warin said Canon had already 16 per cent of the market by October, up from 9-10 per cent last year. Sony leads a market worth Bt10 billion or 800,000 units, which is 15 per cent up from last year. Warin expects the market to grow at the same rate next year. Minokawa said the company's sales last year were Bt4 billion. It expects sales this year to grow 30 per cent.
Nitida Asawanipont
Jirapan Boonnoon
The Nation
Chiang Mai
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